Chennai -> Bhimashankar Lingam (6th) (Pune,Maharashtra) & Grishneshwar Lingam(12th) (Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar,Maharashtra)

Three Days Trip to Maharashtra cover the Bhimashankar and Grishneshwar Jyothirlingam

Day 1:

Chennai -> Pune via Flight 

We have booked AirIndia Flight on 29th Mar 25 05:30 AM from Chennai reached Pune 07:10 AM . My friend from Pune made all arrangement for this trip. Since our journey require lot of travel so we took Taxi which my friend arranged based on our expectations. Had short meet outside Pune had pogah and tea. Taxi guy came by 9 am, We have started our trip from Pune Airport to Bhimashankar Jyothirlingam, roads really worst and we are not sure this is only road to connect Bhimashankar Temple. 

We have reached Bhimashankar around 1 pm and come to know on VIP darshan where you can go directly to nearest temple(paid around 500 per person we took our cab driver as well).Though its VIP darshan we have waited more then 3 hrs. due to pooja time but it was good experience.

Bhimashankar (6th Jyothirlingam)

Once completed our darshan, we started around 4:10 pm to Chhatrapati Sambhaji(Aurangbad) and took our dinner at 6:20 pm at Natraj Hotel ,Nigdale,  Food is really good. We are not sure why our Cab driver took wrong route or route itself like these he skipped NH road and took scary and bumpy road and village road really we don't want to experience this. If somebody planning Taxi make sure or talk to cab driver which route he is taking. We have reached 12:05 AM 30th Mar 2025 CIDCO Sambhaji nagar where we booked Avon Hotel based on ratings. My Pune friend keeping checking our cab driver and our journey and he very much worried about time took to reach Sambhaji nagar.

I will recommend Hotel Avon International, CIDCO which is close to Airport. Second day, we have started bit late to visit Ajanta Caves its almost 130km from our place and we have started at 10:15 AM,30th Mar 25, reached Ajanta Caves by 1 pm. Since we went on Summer time and place is too hot and dry.

                                                             

It took 2-3 hrs to cover Ajanta Caves and we returned to our Hotel by 7 pm, near our hotel there is Prozone mall spent small time there and 30th March is Gudi Padwa(New year) as well so lot of people in the mall. Took our dinner at Avon Hotel itself.

Our third day started earlier from our hotel at 6:45 pm and visited our first place is Grishneshwar Temple which is 34 km from our hotel. Some people told phone are not allowed we have given our phone to nearest shop but we noticed most of carrying phone with them while entering in temple. Since its holiday and Monday there is quiet big number people inside temple and long queue and waited almost 2.5 hours inside and got good blessings.We came out by 11 pm and nearest which is 1 km is Ellora Cave.

Ellora Caves

After Ellora Cab driver took to Annapurna hotel its seems cab driver default place food quiet expensive but place is quit big. After our lunch we went to Bibi ka Maqbara shrine(Mini Taj Mahal).

We got dropped to Airport at 4 pm and Indigo flight only option but you can choose connecting flight Bangalore or Hyderabad, we have chosen Hyderabad and flight got delay 10 minutes. Reached Chennai by 11 pm.

🚖 3-Day Taxi Itinerary – Sedan (A/C Swift Dzire)  

📅 Day 1: Pune ➝ Bhimashankar ➝ Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar

- Pickup: Pune  

- Route: Pune → Bhimashankar → Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar

- Drop: Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar

- Fare: ₹6000  

📅 Day 2: Aurangabad ➝ Ajanta 

- *Route:* Aurangabad → Ajanta Caves (Round Trip) 

- Fare: ₹3000  

📅 Day 3: Aurangabad Local Sightseeing

Places Covered:  

  ⿡ Ellora Caves  

  ⿢ Grishneshwar Temple  

  ⿣ Daulatabad Fort  (if you have look)

  ⿤ Panchakki  (nothing)

  ⿥Bibi Ka Maqbara (Mini Taj Mahal)  

 - Fare: ₹1600  

Flight cost:

Air India - 7978 (divided by 2)

Indigo - 17568( divided by 2)

Hotel Avon international - Rs.4738(two nights)

Per person average cost 23k for this trip.... Thanks for reading my blog